EOU Home  |  About EOU | Visitors Center   

EOU team places high in global math modeling competition

Story & photo by Laura Hancock | University Advancement | lhancock@eou.edu
Friday, April 7, 2006

LA GRANDE, Oregon – A team from Eastern Oregon University has been named a Meritorious Winner in the 2006 Mathematical Contest in Modeling in February. The competition drew 748 teams representing institutions from nine countries, of which EOU’s team placed in the top 18 percent.

From left, EOU students Ihsane Bikri, Christopher Cox
and Ivan Simeonov in the computer lab where they spent
long hours during the COMAP math modeling competition.

Students Ihsane Bikri, Ivan Simeonov and Christopher Cox spent four tense days sequestered in a tiny computer lab on the second floor of Loso Hall, working to solve one of two math modeling problems. As a team, the students chose to solve Problem B, which required them to construct a model capable of assisting a hypothetical airline company needing to determine an efficient way to position wheelchairs in order to assist passengers with limited mobility.

They were also required to create proposals that considered the intrinsic costs associated with their approach, and how these costs might influence their proposed solution. So, how does one tackle a problem of such magnitude? For Bikri, Simeonov and Cox, the first step was to create an outline and focus the ideas they needed to address.

Their goal was to develop a cost efficient program for a hypothetical airline company to maximize the service provided to disabled passengers, while minimizing the associated cost. To do this, the students created a queuing model using the Poisson process. Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines, or “queues.”

Bikri explained the Poisson process as representing events occurring at random along a continuum of time or distance, similar to what happens when cars come to a stop sign. Some might turn left, while other vehicles turn right, and yet others continue straight ahead, and the pattern is independent.

By designing a method of keeping track of the arrival rate of disabled passengers, the team proposed that this would enable the airline to determine how many wheelchairs would be needed to assist disabled passengers at any given time throughout the day.

“It takes a lot of research to fully answer every aspect of this question,” Cox said. “I felt intimidated at first, but you don’t have time to think about that.”

“After the contest, the students look like zombies for two weeks. There is no way to run a dress rehearsal for an event this demanding. It all must come together at show time.”
 — Dr. David Allen, EOU COMAP team faculty advisor

This year, Cox joined veteran math contestants Bikri and Simeonov, whose team received standing as a Successful Participant in last year’s event. Dr. David Allen, math professor at EOU, served as the faculty advisor to the team both years. Other schools placing with the top 18 percent this year include the University of Washington and California Polytechnic University.

It was a team led by Dr. Anthony Tovar, EOU associate professor of physics, that took the Meritorious title last year.

“It’s a challenging competition, “ Dr. Allen said. “Not every registered team manages to complete the contest. In the history of the competition at EOU, all Eastern teams have completed the contest. That tells me a lot about EOU students. Whether the problem is going well for them or not, they always put their heart into it and finish.”

Bikri, Simeonov and Cox started tackling the problem by creating separate, individual models and then comparing them. As a group, they decided that Bikri’s model would be the one they would develop and use. In the four days that followed, the team spent about 60 hours generating their solution, drawing graphs, crunching numbers, doing research, and writing their executive summary and proposal.

Dr. Allen and the other math department faculty kept their distance. No outside suggestions, help, or even hints are allowed during the contest. However, the three students were not without support.

“Dr. Puls brought brownies to us,” Cox said, and Bikri was quick to chime in.

“They take care of us.”

Making sure the students eat during the contest is a priority for the math faculty. Often, students work nearly around the clock, only leaving to go home and do laundry, or attend another class. But all the while, facts, figures and equations were running through their heads. There wasn’t much else they could think about.

“If I leave from here, I can’t sleep!” Bikri said.

Dr. Allen uses running a marathon as an example for the level of physical and mental exhaustion during the competition. He said that some strategy, math modeling and simulation preparation can be done, but these components can’t be put together beforehand because it’s just too demanding.

“After the contest, the students look like zombies for two weeks. There is no way to run a dress rehearsal for an event this demanding. It all must come together at show time.”

By the last day of the competition, everyone was exhausted, but the team submitted their solution two hours before the deadline. Even though they had finished in plenty of time, Cox and Simeonov felt a looming dread. Both of them thought their team might get Honorable Mention, the second to lowest ranking.

When the results came in, the team was thrilled. Bikri received an e-mail with the news. He immediately went out into the hallway and yelled, “Yes!” releasing all the tension that had been building. The most important thing all three teammates expressed was that they wanted to give something back to the math department by doing well in the competition.

“Everything we’ve learned is because of them,” Cox said.

Bikri will graduate this year with a mathematics degree and return to his native Morocco.  He wants say thank you to his professors.

“My best years being in La Grande and at EOU have been with these people. I cannot express that enough.”

Dr. Allen, however, attributes the success of the team entirely to the students.

“It makes me so proud when I see Eastern students continuing to do so well on a relatively consistent basis,” he said. “And I’m equally proud of the team last year as the one this year.”

The international Mathematical Contest in Modeling is funded largely by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP). For a complete list of contestants, visit www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/results.php.

Contact Us | Alumni | Government Relations | President's page